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Enlarge / An un-strung recurve bow, showing the recurved limbs and the central riser. (credit: John Timmer)

A lot of us have only seen archery on episodes of Game of Thrones, or maybe we have hazy memories of a simple fiberglass bow at summer camp. If that's your picture of the technology, than a modern bow probably looks like it was dropped off by aliens.

To find out how this equipment actually functions, we took a subway ride to Gotham Archery, where Anjalie Field walked us through all the moving (and, hopefully, stationary) parts of a bow that's fit for competitive archery. Field got hooked on the sport while young, and she loved it so much that when she ended up at a college without an archery team, she founded one.

Field explained that there are two classes of bows. The string on a compound bow is threaded through a series of pulleys. These pulleys rotate off-center as the string is drawn back, changing the forces involved. Typically, this means that the initial draw requires considerable force, but once it's fully drawn, less effort is involved in holding it there.

Back at E3, a mere ten minutes with an early version of Titanfall 2 were enough. We were convinced that the grappling hook was a welcome addition that already felt like an integral part of Titanfall's rocket-pack-parkour-meets-mechs shooting action. Now, we've had a chance to put a few more hours into a "pre-alpha" version of the game during early access to this weekend's "technical test" on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (which is available to the public starting today, running again August 26 through 28).

With the benefit of more time, we can confirm that the grappling hook changes the Titanfall formula for the better. Double jumps and zippy wall running are still nice, but they're not always a feasible way to gain the height you need to clamber on to an enemy mech or gain an advantageous shooting position. The grappling hook is often just a simpler way to scale a multi-story vertical wall or gain a little speed boost while trying desperately to dash to a far off objective (or even to rocket forward toward an unsuspecting enemy to score a quick jump-kick kill).

The hook is so useful that we found ourselves cursing its limitations—after a couple of uses in short succession, you have to wait a few seconds for the hook to recharge. This is a necessary limitation to stop players from simply grappling around the map with nonstop abandon, but... actually, that nonstop abandon sounds like a lot of fun!

Enlarge (credit: Comcast)

When Comcast launched its gigabit cable service in Atlanta and Nashville earlier this year, the company offered a $70 monthly price for customers who sign three-year contracts, half off the no-contract "every-day" price.

But when Comcast announced gigabit Internet for parts of Chicago this week, the no-contract price of $139.95 was the only one mentioned. The difference, as DSLRreports wrote today, is that there's no Google Fiber providing competition in Chicago yet. While Google Fiber has tentative plans to expand to Chicago, its $70 gigabit Internet service is already available in parts of Atlanta and Nashville.

Comcast's Chicago announcement said the company "will test promotional pricing during the trial period," but didn't name any specific offers that are better than the $140 no-contract price. When contacted by Ars, a Comcast spokesperson said there is "nothing to announce at this time." The Chicago service may also come with a 1TB monthly data cap, as Comcast has previously only provided unlimited data to gigabit customers who sign a three-year contract. Otherwise, unlimited data costs $50 a month extra.